Society and Fear: Prudence or Calamity?

Are you afraid of paying the price and do not want to be punished or reprimanded for a single word? Even if that word is the truth? Words that, for example, if spoken at work, might lead to unemployment or cause you significant trouble! Surely, we have all heard many times at home, school, or work from parents, classmates, friends, colleagues, or bosses that 'What does it matter to you? Just focus on your life or stick to your work. Nothing will change by talking. No bad has gone that good can come in its place. So it’s better not to jeopardize your position and somehow come to terms with the issue.' Hearing such sentences makes most of us face doubt and fear, and we hear that inner voice asking why we should get into trouble. But has the fear of protest, even when we are right, become a widespread phenomenon in Iranian society, replaced by self-censorship? Sociologist and social researcher Hossein Ghazian, residing in the U.S., answers this question: 'I think we are facing a phenomenon of widespread fear in Iran. Fear has taken on an epidemic aspect and has spread to everyone. Just like a disease that becomes widespread, fear has taken on such a state in our society. You ask why? Because fear arises from ambiguity and uncertainty. We do not know what will happen a moment later in the distant future. For example, consider when you walk in a dark street in an unfamiliar neighborhood and city; you may feel scared because you do not know what awaits you. What might happen a moment later? This fear arises from ambiguity. It stems from the fact that you cannot predict. You cannot guess what will happen next because the neighborhood is unfamiliar to you. It is the same here now. We do not know what will happen a moment later because we do not trust that the future will be like the past. For example, if we have had a friend and colleague who has supported us, it is unclear whether they will cooperate with us tomorrow if we protest. This situation occurs when you see different people at various levels whom you cannot trust, meaning their future is not like their past; you fear what might happen in the future, and fear arises.' Hamed, a citizen from Tehran, tells us about the reasons for this widespread fear and prudence: 'We have never had democracy, and people have never been able to receive their demands through legal and civil means. Secondly, in the Islamic Republic, any kind of professional activity, even if it is non-political, turns into a political movement. It has always been like this because the government does not want populations to form, even if they are professional. It fears that it will cause problems in the future. This bad experience has led many individuals to abandon the idea of protest and say that even if we do something, a political label will stick to us. Therefore, that cooperation, solidarity, and collective thinking do not emerge.' But what should we do in the face of fear and prudence, and why do some of us exacerbate this fear? Most of us experience anxiety and fear when we move away from our home, neighborhood, city, and country and arrive at a new place due to the unfamiliarity of the environment. Therefore, we try to stand on our own feet and rely on our abilities to confront this fear of the environment. However, in situations where we are in our home, neighborhood, city, and country, or working with our compatriots, and there may not be an institution, union, or association that would react if injustice is done to us or our neighbors, what should we do? Hossein Ghazian believes that in such conditions, if society has a guiding structure and is not a soulless and ineffective body, it can overcome social fear: 'Society means trust. It means you can predict that the person next to you, your colleague or friend, your brother, your neighbor will behave the same way they did yesterday. If that is the case, you can trust that if they stand behind your demands today, they will do so tomorrow and will not leave you alone. Fear exists because there is no possibility of prediction. There is no possibility of prediction because trust does not exist. Trust does not exist because you are not sure whether people will adhere to the rules or not. That is, whether they will act according to what we have always thought was the rule of their behavior or not. Secondly, the rules themselves are in disarray. It is unclear according to what rules this person acts and what rules another person acts according to. These are what constitute society. When you do not have a society, the possibility of these collective and group events is greatly reduced. You feel very alone. You always have to protect yourself from the harm of others. This state of fear is the state of the absence of society. Society always has a warm support; when this warm support is absent, it means there is no society; we do not live in a society, and in fact, we live with the body and corpse of society. This social foundation is what you are seeking in the absence of organizations.' Individuals who are afraid accept that they are powerless and sometimes, for the rest of their lives, are unable to express even the simplest human demands of themselves and their kind due to this doubt, powerlessness, and fear, and they try to distance themselves from realities. According to Joseph Murphy, an American author and psychologist, only by crossing the borders of doubt and fear can one reach truth and peace.